John Mower, Vicar of Tenterden in the Late Fifteenth Century: His Will, His Career and His Library

摘要

Even after the reduction of John Mower's biography by removing the data relating to Dr John Morer, it is clear that our man was no simple rural cleric. Lutton refers to 'his extraordinary last will and testament which reveals his important position within fifteenth-century humanist scholarship'. Willoughby considers that he 'takes his place as one of the handful of Englishmen known to have been active in humanistic studies early in the reign of Henry VII'. This is underlined by his ownership of Greek books and his connections with Linacre at the time when the latter was still a student, and with William Selling as patron of both of them. There can be little doubt that he had had a career which involved teaching both in collegiate establishments, especially at Oxford, and in Benedictine houses, especially in Canterbury. His will has the appearance of that of a retired teacher wishing to remember both institutions with which he had been connected and clerical colleagues in his locality, some of whom may even have been among his former students.